Beginnings, Personal Drummers and Adult Card Hobby Preferences...

[ALR-bishop]

I started collecting as a kid in 1957. The first set I completed was 1959 Topps which is a sentimental favorite. Ultimately collected Topps, Bowman and Fleer baseball. But from younger days had some 61 Fleer football and basketball, so completed those and they are my only mainstream non baseball sets. The 61 Fleer set is neat because all the pics are without helmets with clear facial views and checklisted in order by team. I like the 61 Fleer set because my uncle had season tickets to the Hawks games and he often took me. I actually got to see all the players in the set play

I also have a 13 card Essex Meats St Louis Hawks set ( Hawks were in St Louis until mid 60s) and an 8 Mayrose Meats St. Louis Cardinals football set ( they are now in Phoenix). On a good day I almost think I can still smell the bacon

There is a 14th card possible to the Hawks Essex Meats set, Sihugo Green, but I have never seen one.

[jchcollins]

Originally Posted by ALR-bishop

I also have a 13 card Essex Meats St Louis Hawks set ( Hawks were in St Louis until mid 60s) and an 8 Mayrose Meats St. Louis Cardinals football set ( they are now in Phoenix). On a good day I almost think I can still smell the bacon

As a kid in the late 1980's, true food issues weren't really a thing anymore. Maybe the Quaker or Nestle cards - I remember having some of those, but they were always airbrushed to remove the logos. Bleeeech.

[71buc]

Adam I love that Bruce Lee Return of the Dragon card. I’ve been collecting baseball since 1971 and that Bruce brought back more nostalgia than anything posted here. There are a lot of trees here in the PNW. The 10 year old version of me side kicked quite a few “O'Hara” Pines back in the day.

[Empty77]

I recognize that MVP Clemente in the OP, but hadn't thought about it in forever. I had it and can recall that as my only Clemente and possibly the oldest-seeming thing I owned, it got prize positioning in one of the 2 or 3 scratched up top loaders I had accumulated second-hand. (I displayed my best stuff out on a bookshelf.)

This was pre-internet or at least pre-internet ubiquity, and not living in a big city or a particularly sports-inclined region, I only had access to new packs in the grocery store check-out aisle and the toy/sports section of the JCPenny mail-order catalogue. I didn't have a whole set so must have traded for it somehow.

At some point I found a place called 'Collector's Corner' in the phone book and convinced my mom to drive an hour across town to this place which was like Eden to me. I bought my first 'real' Clemente there: a 1962 with corners so rounded, fluffy paper particles were practically wafting off of it. But it was a real contemporarily-issued card and now mine. I suspect at that point something in my mind switched over and I haven't looked back since.

Since then my collecting is limited to playing years. While I can't know exactly why that is, it feels like something to do with a sense of scarcity---like that the playing-years issues feel real and now limited, whereas 'best-of' and 'All-time' type reminiscence cards can be made year after year endlessly.

While I can appreciate why others may enjoy them, they are largely meaningless to me, even that TCMA issue that was my first. And I'm guessing that's probably a healthy thing, since I suspect there's a fine line between collecting and 'hoarding'. There's clearly too much product out there for any of us to have everything. And so anything any one person can look at and have no desire at all to accumulate, must indicate they're still on the sane side of the line?

[Eric72]

My first introduction to retired baseball players via cardboard were the Laughlin cards of the '70s. Two series I had cards from as a kid were the Famous Feats and Worlds Series cards. I feel as much nostalgia for those as I do for '77 to '80 Topps cards. All of them "bring me back" to the days of my youth. Each one is like a miniature time capsule, storing memories and emotions from my childhood.

Somehow, I think a picture's value is often much more than a thousand words.